


Living Under The Loaded Gun

by Eustacia Vye (eustaciavye)



Category: Inception (2010)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-10-11
Updated: 2011-10-11
Packaged: 2017-10-24 12:16:38
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,476
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/263383
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eustaciavye/pseuds/Eustacia%20Vye
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The extraction itself was easy. Getting out was a whole other story.</p><p>For the prompt <a href="http://community.livejournal.com/inception_kink/17669.html?thread=36684805#t36684805">Ariadne also has a secret/mysterious military past (c.f. Arthur in like, every fic ever written). The team finds this out in an opportune moment (i.e., with violence).</a> Fills the "caught in a robbery" box for my hc_bingo card.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Living Under The Loaded Gun

"We're going to have to break in," Arthur said, looking over the plans for the office building. He pursed his lips and sighed, looking out over the rest of the team. Qing was the extractor, Davis was the chemist and Ariadne was the architect. She didn't seem perturbed at all, which Arthur had thought she would be. Then again, she had always been curious about dream share and didn't seem afraid of anything. Even limbo hadn't fazed her at all. Once she had wrapped her mind around the concept of dream sharing and accepted the inherent danger of shades and invading minds, she seemed amazingly level headed. He didn't even question it anymore.

Qing sighed and looked over the plans. "I don't understand these," she admitted, waving her hand over the small notations and measurements. "Is it structural issues that are the problem? Or the security system? I can hack any system."

"It's not just hacking," Arthur replied, shaking his head. "Either of us can get the security systems down, and I can always hold off the live security teams until you get in and get the documents. What I can't do is get all four of us into the room with the subject. His office is built like a panic room, and all of the wiring and duct work on these plans seem to indicate that the only way in is to blast it open."

"Ah. I see. It will be a mess."

Ariadne took the plans and pored over them. Arthur could read most plans, but he was still a novice compared to her. "We could always use the service entrance into the building to bypass where the main security will be." She pointed to the appropriate place on the map. "It would be like going in the back door instead of through the front."

"I like that idea," Qing said, warming to Ariadne's suggestion. "It is easy to look like cleaning staff, especially for us. No one would think to look twice at petite women in cleaning uniforms."

Arthur glanced between the two women, nodding. "We can work with that to get the two of you in..." He looked over at Davis. "You're watching over us..."

"I ain't cleaning nothing," Davis protested. "I'm allergic to bleach."

Arthur suppressed the urge to say something biting. "I was about to say that we need a different way in."

Ariadne looked over the plans a little unhappily. "If there was a distraction, maybe. Qing and I can enter the building and even his office, but there's still the matter of getting the two of you in. There's no one else that has a working office on that floor because of his paranoia."

"You don't need me there," Davis said, looking between the others. "It's a straight shot, right? You don't need me watching over the rest of you."

"Two levels," Qing said sharply, eyes glittering like chips of onyx. "You watch over us, Ariadne watches the first level. Arthur and I go in on the second. He will not be easy to conquer otherwise. You were recommended for your talent, but cowardice was not discussed."

Davis bristled at the remark, likely the intent behind making it. Qing could be very brusque when she put her mind to it. Before he could say anything, Ariadne looked up at him with a perfectly innocent expression. "Have you seen anything done in past jobs that might help you sneak in?"

Qing rolled her eyes but didn't say a word as Davis told an obviously embellished story about staging a robbery in a different area of a building to draw security's attention away from the actual target area. "That's something I've done in dreams, too," Arthur said, nodding. "But if that happens, we're going to have to get more people involved to do that."

"I'll need maybe two thousand extra," he said, shrugging. "That and a suggestion of more in the print shop on the first floor ought to be enough to buy us a distraction."

Arthur nodded. "Then do it. Ariadne and Qing can find us the way into the office. Once we're there, we should have a solid two hours real time to get in and out."

He smiled in appreciation at Ariadne afterward. Just like when they had first met, she had somehow been able to defuse volatile egos. It was definitely a valuable trait in this business.

***

The robbery in the print shop was more than enough distraction to get building security involved. The service areas to the building were left unsupervised, and the entire team were able to get into the service elevator and head to the twentieth floor. Their subject was the paranoid director of a telecommunications company. He had claimed to have several software development teams simultaneously working to design new systems; after almost three years and millions of Euros, the Board of Directors were getting impatient with him. He never attended meetings in person and refused to release any details regarding the progress of the different teams or establish a timeline for when they might be done. The Board of Directors put together their options, but they had no proof that anything wrong was happening.

That left it up to Qing and Arthur to find the data and present it to the Board.

The extraction itself was easy; as paranoid as the director was in real life, his mind was wide open and trusting once they got inside his defenses. He mistakenly believed that anyone able to enter his secure office had a right to be there, that no one could bypass his security. His faith made it easy for Arthur to assure him that it was all a training exercise downstairs, and they were there simply to make the director comfortable throughout the process. Ariadne slipped the sedatives into his drink, and Qing caught him as he fell. The extraction went according to plan, and the kicks worked perfectly.

It was getting out of his office that was a problem; the actual head of security had made his way up to the director's office to report on the incident in the print shop. Caught in the act, Arthur and Qing had no choice but to start shooting their way out.

To Arthur's complete surprise, Ariadne removed a Baretta from beneath her jacket and started shooting as well. Her aim was terrifyingly accurate, and the look of intense concentration on her face was just like the one she had when putting her models together. "I didn't know you could shoot," he said as he ejected the spent magazine and put in a new one.

"My father's Army," Ariadne said, not taking her eyes off of her target. She squeezed off another shot and then ducked behind the edge of the doorway again. "He made sure we knew how to field strip his service weapon by the time we were ten in case anything ever happened at our house. And he took us all hunting and fishing a lot, so there was plenty of practice besides the range."

Ariadne moved back around the edge of the doorway and then squeezed off a few rounds. There was the sound of bodies collapsing as she ducked low to the floor and started moving forward. Eyebrows lofted, Arthur shared a glance with Qing. She was the silent type but still appeared nonplused by Ariadne's response. Neither had expected that from her, since she had been more quiet and reserved. Qing shrugged and then followed Ariadne into the hallway. They had to get the hell out of the building and put together the report for the Board of Directors.

"You two need to head out first," Ariadne said, nodding in the general direction of the service elevators. "I'll keep their attention while you go report in."

"I can't just leave you here!" Arthur hissed.

"Arthur, I can handle this," she snapped, irritated. "Just _go."_

Qing didn't need to be told twice, and started moving when Ariadne laid down cover fire. Davis didn't need any encouragement to follow suit, and Arthur flashed Ariadne an unhappy expression. At her fierce look in return, he also headed away from the office. It occurred to her that she probably should have asked for his Glock, since she didn't normally carry extra magazines with her. She had only started carrying a weapon after the Fischer job; that had made her appreciate the prior training her father had put her through, even though she used to grumble and complain that she would never need to use it.

Not having many cartridges left, Ariadne shot at a fire extinguisher hanging at the end of the hallway. It pierced the container, releasing the pressurized contents. It startled the incoming guards, making them fire wildly into the smoky mass of chemicals. There were two guards in the way, and Ariadne didn't stop to hope that they were wearing Kevlar vests under their uniforms. She started running from the office suite, keeping as low to the ground as she could. Being petite, it wasn't that hard to do.

Getting to the service elevators, she could see that their car was still moving. It would be a long time before it would let the others out and came back for her, so she didn't even bother to hit the button. Instead, she headed straight for the stairs and pushed through. Glad that she was wearing her boots, Ariadne put her gun into her pocket and raced down the stairs as fast as she could. She went three flights down and then went through an unlocked door just as the doors up above her banged open with a shout. She headed down that hallway as quickly as she could. According to the building schematics, there were more offices on this floor. Ariadne didn't want to get anyone else involved in a shootout, so she headed for the main elevator banks and went into the stairwell there. Running down another few flights, she went into another floor to catch her breath.

"He _had_ to be way the hell up there," she grumbled under her breath, hitting the button for the elevator. She and Qing might have dressed as service staff to enter the building, but she had dressed in business casual clothing beneath the uniform. It helped her pass as temp staff now, and she waited along with the growing crowd waiting for the elevator. She suspected that the distraction on the first floor had something to do with it. Likely they were blocking off all elevator service in this part of the building.

The Baretta seemed to weigh more and more in her jacket pocket as she waited with the rapidly impatient crowd. She should have put it back in her rig properly, but she hadn't wanted to delay time in drawing it out if there were problems with security staff.

Finally the elevators started coming up, and she had a chance to get into one with other office staff. A text arrived on her phone as she entered the elevator, but there was no way to check it until the elevators came down to the main level. Wedged into the crowd as she was, Ariadne had no trouble exiting the building. Once she was a block away, she allowed herself a breath of relief and she checked her phone.

It was from Arthur, letting her know they were at the rendezvous point safely. She quickly fired a text back that she just exited the building and would be meeting them soon.

It had been a close call, considering how they had gotten caught. Counting her blessings, Ariadne made her way to the meeting spot.

***

"I didn't know you could handle a weapon like that," Arthur commented after Davis left the safe house. Qing was still there, and would leave in another few hours for her flight back to Hong Kong. She had counted her share of the payout twice, which had been done in cash. Unlike Arthur, Qing didn't seem terribly interested in any explanation from Ariadne. Then again, she hadn't known Ariadne before.

"I haven't in a long time," Ariadne replied, shrugging. She hadn't bothered to count her share, knowing that Arthur would have been honest in splitting up the proceeds. She sat down across from him and took off her shoulder rig to clean out the Baretta. When Arthur sat down across from her to do the same with his Glock, she had to grin at him. "Looking to see if I really know what I'm doing?"

Arthur grinned at her. "I'd be remiss if I didn't make absolutely certain."

Ariadne laughed and started the routine her father had drilled into her since childhood. "We went target shooting or hunting sometimes, but I didn't do it as often once I hit high school. Too many projects, and then I was applying to go to school overseas. So it's been a long time since I've gotten consistent practice. My aim was off in our first job."

"You told me you'd shot Mal," Arthur said with a frown.

"Yeah, but I was aiming for her _head."_ She grinned ruefully at Arthur's amused smile. "I might've been a little freaked out by the whole situation, too. His limbo wasn't very scary, but the concept of getting trapped down there for eternity..."

"It's the one thing dreamers are really scared of," Arthur agreed. They worked in companionable silence for a while, cleaning out their respective weapons. "Your aim today was good."

"I found a range after I got back home from LA," Ariadne told him ruefully. "I wasn't going to screw that up again, not if it counted."

"It definitely counted today," Arthur replied, appreciation clear in his tone. "Thank you."

"You're very welcome," she said with a warm smile, starting to reassemble her Baretta. It was almost time for Qing to leave. "It was great working with you, Qing," she told the extractor. "Maybe next time there won't be as many bullets involved."

Qing merely smiled. "If there are, I will not doubt your expertise in returning fire." She checked her watch. "I'm going to leave now," she told them, picking up her briefcase. "I have a few stops to make prior to my flight. Take care."

Arthur finished cleaning out his Glock and started to reassemble it as well. Once he was done, he put up his gun and looked over at Ariadne. "My flight's in the morning and yours is in the afternoon. Want to go to dinner? There's a really good restaurant not that far away from your hotel."

Ariadne grinned. "Sounds like a good way to pass the time. I'd love to, thanks."

Putting their jackets on to hide the weapons, they left the safe house, confident in their chances to keep dreaming.

The End


End file.
